"Alright Annie, so the first thing to always have at the back of your mind when you are using a bow, is your stance" said Alina as she smiled happily.
"You need to stand upright with your feet and shoulders width apart, at a 90 degree angle to the target" said Alina as she smiled and she adjusted Annie's stance as she moved her shoulders and she moved Annie to stand at a 90 degree angle, facing the other wall of the stables.
"I didn't know that Math came into this as well" said Maddie as she laughed.
"Oh it does Maddie, your stance in archery means everything, if you have a bad stance, then everything else will be bad as well" said Alina as she looked at Maddie and she laughed.
"Annie relax, you are too tense" said Alina as she could feel the tenseness in Annie's shoulders as she held them.
"Okay" said Annie as she nodded her head and she tried to calm herself down, of course she was scared, this was the first time that she would be doing anything like this at all, and she did not want to hurt anyone, or get hurt herself.
"Just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and breathe out through your mouth" said Alina as she smiled and Annie nodded her head as she did as Alina told her too.
"That's it, like that" said Alina as she smiled and Annie opened her eyes as she felt so much better now.
"There you go" said Alina as she smiled.
"Thank you" said Annie as she smiled.
"No need to thank me Annie, and also, there is no need to feel embarrassed at all, even I was scared when I first held my bow" said Alina as she smiled.
"But my Master calmed me down the same way I calmed you down" said Alina as she smiled and Annie smiled at her.
"Now to the next part which is your grip" said Alina.
"You need to keep a relaxed grip on the bow handle" said Alina as she smiled and she watched as Annie adjusted her grip on the bow handle.
"Yes, just like that" said Alina as she smiled and she took an arrow from her quiver.
"And now, you place your arrow on the bow, like this" said Alina as she smiled and placed the bow for Annie in the right position because she knew that doing that on your own without lots of practice was hard.
"Now you need to position your fingers well" said Alina.
"Position your fingers on the strong, with your index finger above the arrow, and your two other fingers below, the string of the bow should sit in the last crease of your finger" said Alina as she smiled and Annie nodded her head as she tried to do as Alina had told her to.
"Yes, just like that, perfect" said Alina as she smiled, and Annie smiled at her.
"Now all that's left is to draw back your arrow, and shoot, but first, we need a target" said Alina as she smiled and she quickly rushed to the other side of the stables to get a target as she put it in a considerable distance since Annie was a beginner.
"There you go" said Alina as she smiled.
"Now, make sure not to grip the arrow with your fingers, instead pull back the string, using your back muscles and not your arm, pull back the string so that the index finger of your pulling hand is under the chin, and the string touches your nose and lips" said Alina as she explained.
"Like this?" asked Annie as she did as Alina had said.
"Yes just like that, you are a good student" said Alina as she smiled.
"Well I have a good teacher" said Annie as she laughed.
"That may be true, but sometimes having the best teacher doesn't make you a good student, I remember when I was learning how to use a bow, I had the wrong stance and everything, it took me such a long time to learn to adapt, but you are so natural at it" said Alina as she smiled.
"Of course, she is, she's Annie" said Maddie as she smiled and Annie laughed sheepishly.
"Okay now, using your dominant eye look down at the arrow and align it with the target" said Alina as Annie nodded her head and Alina moved aside as Annie looked at the target and she looked at the arrow with her right eye and she aligned it with the target.
"And when you are ready, relax your grip on the string and allow your fingers to slip backwards and release the arrow" said Alina as she smiled and Annie nodded her head.
"This part takes so much focus and it's so…" said Alina as she was cut off when suddenly Annie let go of the arrow as it went flying straight for the target, and it hit the lowest point.
"Woah, that was a good one Annie" said Alina as she smiled, she was so surprised.
"Wohoo, way to go Annie" said Maddie as she smiled and she clapped as Ollie joined her in clapping as well.
"That was a good shot" said Ollie as he smiled.
"You think so?" asked Annie as she turned to look at Ollie and Maddie.
"I didn't even hit the target" said Annie as she put the bow down.
"Don't be too hard on yourself Annie, that was only your first try, on my first try, the arrow didn't even hit the target, you are a natural Annie" said Alina as she smiled.
"Thank you" said Annie as she smiled, and Alina smiled at her.
"You want to try again?" asked Alina.
"Okay" said Annie as she smiled.
…
Do not grip the arrow with your fingers. Pull back the string using your back muscles, not your bicep/arm. Pull back the string so that the index finger of the pulling hand is under the chin, and the string touches your nose and lips.
"What are you doing Curtis?" asked Matt as he walked into the room as Curtis was looking at something.
"I am looking at the map" said Curtis as he looked up at Matt and then he folded the map back up again.
"Why?" asked Matt, Ollie had told him that he was going to the stables to hang out with the girls, and he said that he should come with him, but Matt refused, he did not want to dare try to go out, his ears were aching, more than usual.
"I just wanted to check something" said Curtis.
"Which is?" asked Matt.
"I checked the map again, and to no surprise, this colony is not listed there, neither is the forest, or anything else that shows signs of people living here" said Curtis as he looked at Matt.
"Well maybe these things were here when the map was first created" said Matt.
"That might be a possibility, or maybe they were here, but they were hidden, just like every thing else on Caligo" said Curtis.
"Maybe that is a possibility" said Matt as he agreed with Curtis, you could never knew if you were right or not when it came to Caligo.
"Mhmm" said Curtis as he put the map back in his bag as suddenly he felt a tinge of pain that made him flinch for a second, but he shrugged it off as he turned to look at Matt.
"This rain doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon" said Matt.
"It's been like this for three days now" said Matt.
"Well this was unforeseen, we did not even know that it would rain, much more less that it would rain and decide not to stop again" said Curtis as he found this all weird, he never counted anything just ordinary or a coincidence, there had to be a reason for everything, and well he just did not know what the reason for all the rain was.
"It's like the heavens are just pouring down" said Matt as he looked outside the window.
"More than that, you would think that by now, after all this rain, everywhere would be flooded, but the ground seems to be absorbing up all the rain, it's only wet, and not soaked" said Curtis.
"I found that weird as well… but I mean well… nothing is normal on Caligo, I know that fact for sure" said Matt.
"I have to agree with you the-…" said Curtis as he was unable to finish his sentence when he suddenly felt indescribable pain as he fell down to the ground as Matt rushed to him.
"Curtis, what's wrong?" asked Matt as Curtis could not talk, he could only cough as the pain immersed him completely.
"Curtis, your nose is bleeding" said Matt as suddenly Curtis' nose began to bleed and his eyes turned red as Curtis could no longer see.
Matt did not know what to do, this looked more serious than anything that had happened to Curtis before.
"What happened?" asked Ivor as he walked to the room, he was passing by when he heard a loud noise.
"I don't know, Curtis just fell, and he's not responding" said Matt as he looked at Ivor, and Ivor looked at Curtis as he was taken aback by what he saw, this was not normal at all.
"Is he having a seizure?" asked Ivor as he looked at Matt.
"I don't know" said Matt as this did not look like a normal episode that Curtis used to have.
Ivor thought fast as he could see that Curtis had no time left, so he quickly carried Curtis in his arms as he rushed to his room and Matt followed after him.
"Go and call me Alina" said Ivor as he looked at Matt.
"Okay" said Matt as he did not waste a single second as he rushed out to call Alina.